


The Second Time Around

by writewithurheart



Series: Do Over (A Little Different This Time Around) [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Deleted Scenes, F/M, Gen, Violence, reactions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-15 00:43:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5765212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writewithurheart/pseuds/writewithurheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Companion to "Once More (From the Top)" </p><p>These are the deleted scenes from "Once More". As such I highly recommend reading that first or this won't make any sense.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. What Happened at the Bank (Chapter 20 Companion)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello beautiful readers! 
> 
> In the 22nd chapter of Once More, I asked if anyone was interested in deleted scenes and the reaction was beyond what I imagined! So, I'm starting this collection. These stories will vary in length and "deleted scenes" will refer to side stories/outtakes that are shorter than the average chapter length. 
> 
> This first chapter takes place before Chapter 20 of Once More. I wrote this as an outline for myself as to what was going to happen and it's largely unedited. 
> 
> I hope you like it!

**What happened at the Bank**

“Do you think he’s going to take the deal?” Felicity’s foot bounces nervously as she sits in the van between Digg and Oliver, eyes glued to the screens in front of her. The bank feeds are splayed out in front of them as they wait for the Restons to appear.

 _Or wait to see that they don’t_ , Oliver thinks as he scans the footage. Felicity had gone with him to talk to Derek about a new job within Queen Consolidated, hoping to lend a bit of credibility to his otherwise kind of shady offer. Well, Felicity dubbed it shady when he said he talked to Derek in a bar. She went to make it more “official,” which to her credit did appear to do help convince the other man.

 “I don’t know,” Oliver says out loud.

“But he seemed like he was going to when we talked. You said he killed someone this time, right? That this was the heist that brought the Royal Flush Gang to your attention?” She asks. Her fingers twitch with the need to type, to work on something, to be productive in the interim.

Oliver reaches out and stills her leg with a hand on her knee. “Hey. Whatever happens, this is where it ends. If the Restons arrive, we take them down quickly, without any civilian casualties.”

“And if they don’t?” Digg asks, voice full of doubt in the prospect.

Oliver leans back with a sigh. “Then we keep tabs on them, make sure they stay on the right side of the law. We’re just giving them the opportunity to be better.”

 Diggle shakes his head, still not content with the terms Oliver and Felicity have set. He’s been more than clear about his opinion from the moment they came up with the plan. He’s been tagging along as Oliver’s bodyguard and looking on with snide disapproval.

“One way or another, they’re getting shut down today,” Oliver repeats for Diggle’s benefit.

The other man nods in acknowledgement, but doesn’t look any more relaxed than before.

The van lapses into silence as they each focus on the cameras in search of the men who may or may not show up. The minutes drag on and on. The faces on the camera start to blur together and Oliver finds himself blinking rapidly to help focus on the figures before him. Digg excuses himself, saying he’s going to walk around and see if he spots anything suspicious. Meanwhile, Felicity’s fingers fly across the screen of her smartphone as she communicates with work, or codes or something like that. Oliver’s not really sure what she’s doing, only that she’s ridiculously cute with her brow furrowed in concentration.

“They’re here,” John announces over the comms. “Mrs. Reston is walking up to the east entrance now.”

Oliver and Felicity’s eyes move in tandem to the screens.

Felicity squints, “I don’t see her.”

Oliver gently redirects her chin so she’s looking at the right camera.

“Oh,” she whispers. “Yeah, that’s her.”

Felicity starts typing, redirecting the camera feeds to get a better view of the suspect and another set to view the street outside, as Oliver preps his suit. He has enough time to sneak in through a window before Felicity peaks again: “And here come the masks. Digg?”

 _“I’m on the brunette. You in position, Oliver_?”

“Almost there,” he mutters as he rounds the corner and nocks an arrow. There’s still a distance to go to the main lobby when he hears the gunshots. “Talk to me, Digg.”

_“Three guys. Two are gun-happy. Your boy looks more reluctant.”_

Oliver can’t figure out if that’s good news or bad. Reston had been reluctant last time, but it hadn’t changed the heist, only lead to his death. He heaves a resigned sigh. “They’re robbing the bank. Time to take them down.”

He releases the first arrow and it flies through the air to knock the gun from Ace’s hands, or it should have but the man managed to keep one hand on the weapon. The Green Arrow was already in motion though and fired off another arrow at Jack before diving behind the counter to avoid the barrage of bullets aimed at him.

A teller stares at him with wide eyes and Oliver offers a stiff smile before returning his focus to the enemy shouting:

“Why don’t you come out and face us, Green Tights!”

A round of bullets follows the challenge. It’s definitely not Derek, although Oliver’s certain he hears the deep timbre of his voice saying: “we should leave. Now. Before the cops show up.”

“ _Arrow, Ace and Jack are closing in on your position. Digg, the Queen has eyes on you and that undercover cop on the other side of you_ ,” Felicity warns via the comms.

Oliver glances over the counter to see masks coming from either side. He turns back to the teller. “Stay down.”

Through the comms he hears Digg dealing with the cop. “ _Put that away man. Trust me on this one._ ”

One well-aimed arrow is enough to send Jack skittering back from the counter cursing, but he doesn’t lose hold of his weapon. That’s the start of the bad feeling in Oliver’s gut. He hadn’t counted on them being able to hold on to their weapons so well. He was sure that by this point, He would have at least disarmed two of them.

There’s nothing he can do now though.

He turns to fire a shot off at Ace, but the masked figure has backed up out of sight with a muttered, “Fuck this.”

“I need eyes,” Oliver mutters, hand twisting restlessly on the grip of his bow.

“ _Ace is,_ ” Felicity starts and then releases an audible gasp, “ _He’s taking a hostage, Oliver. Oh, God! It’s a young woman._ ”

Oliver grimaces at the thought. He knows what’s going to come next. And it was on their list of worse possible scenarios. He’s not completely unprepared, but he hadn’t thought it would actually come to this.

“ _Do you want me to-“_

“Keep your cover,” Oliver says, cutting off Digg’s suggestion. This situation could escalate to something much worse and he’s not going to tip their hand now.

“Alright, Green Tights,” a male voice shouts from the other side of the counter, “come out with your bow up or I start shooting hostages, starting with this lovely specimen.”

Oliver waits a moment, trying to gauge the severity of the situation. He doesn’t want it to look like he’s going to give in immediately to whatever they demand.

“ _Oliver,_ ” Felicity warns, unease prevalent in her voice even over the comms.

“Cut the power as I stand,” Oliver orders in a whisper as he lifts the empty bow over his head to place it on the counter.

“ _Oliver_ ,” she repeats.

“Felicity,” he responds in a growl as he prepares to stand.

“ _Yeah, I got it_ ,” she mutters. “ _I still don’t like this plan, but the power will go out in 3...”_

“Stand up, Greenie, or this chick gets a bullet though her head!” Ace shouts, anger an unsteady undercurrent.

“ _2..._ ”

“This isn’t a bluff.”

Oliver starts to rise, gloved hands held aloft.

“ _1...”_

In eerie synchronicity, Oliver stands, Ace shoots, and the lights go out.

Oliver’s in motion, jumping over the counter as he snags his bow and swings at Ace, finally hitting the gun from his hands. Then Jack is on him, abandoning the girl they held hostage in favor of going after the Green Arrow.

Derek Reston himself is frozen by the door, looking on the situation without being able to act.

“Digg, get the hostages out,” Oliver grits into the comms as he ducks another blow, his bow dropping to the floor as a necessity of hand-to-hand combat.

Individually, the Reston brother’s aren’t particularly formidable, but together they put up enough of a fight that Oliver – in his desire to not permanently hurt either – has to focus on them completely.

“ _Civilians clear_ ,” Digg announces. “ _And the cops are on their way. Someone must have pushed the silent alarm_.”

“Good.” Oliver’s elbow connects with Jack’s nose as he ducks under Ace’s left hook. “Now-“

“ _Queen and King are headed to the back alley!_ ” Felicity announces. “ _I think I can talk them down._ ”

A chill settles into Oliver’s blood, the bad feeling returned a hundred fold. It’s only instinct that keeps his body swaying away from the punches and kicks coming his way, but in his distraction Ace sneaks past his guard, delivering a solid punch to his jaw, a punch that sends Oliver sprawling.

“No,” he growls as throws himself behind a desk to avoid a barrage of bullets. “Wait for Digg. He’s getting the hostages out and then he’s coming to you.”

“ _Derek doesn’t want to do this. I can talk him into surrendering, Oliver. I know I can_ ,” she argues, like he knew she would.

“Wait for Digg,” Oliver repeats before throwing himself back into the fray. He needs to end this. As quickly as possible.

“ _Don’t do anything stupid!_ ” Digg joins in with a shout. “ _I’m on my way to your position. Oliver, you have to finish this._ ”

He couldn’t agree more, so he takes the first opening he can find and breaks Jack’s arm before knocking him out with a solid blow to the back of the neck.

Shots are fired over Oliver’s head and he dives behind a desk, barely managing to grab his bow before he disappears from sight.

“Come on! We gotta go!”

Oliver freezes. That voice belongs to Derek Reston.

“Digg, please tell me you’re with Felicity.”

“ _No. The cops got in the way. I had to go the long way around._ ”

“Shit. Felicity, get back in the van and stay low. Felicity?”

There’s no response and Oliver can hear the Restons escaping out the back, right into that alley.

“Felicity!”

Oliver breaks into a run, chasing the Restons as he nocks his bow.

He hears it as he rounds to corner.

BANG BANG BANG.

The gunshots send him into a sprint to the end of the hallway and the back exit of the bank.  His foot collides with the lever and the door bursts open into blinding sunlight.

“FELICITY!”

His roar echoes around the alley. Light blinds him to all but the vaguest shadows, yet his mind makes sense of them without conscious thought. There are five figures in the alley and only one is on his side.

The figures clear as he looses the first arrow on the nearest masked figure. Three more arrows follow and the Royal flush gang collapses in various poses like some grotesque dance.

Only Felicity is left standing, staring at him in shock as she lifts a hand slowly to press against the blood blossoming from her shoulder before she collapses to the pavement in an ungainly heap.

This was not supposed to get this out of hand.

She was never supposed to be in danger, but of course when she thought she could help, she had to try. Now, thanks to her attempted heroics, Felicity’s collapsed in the middle of the alley with a pool of blood starting to convalesce under her.

“Digg?”

Oliver’s already at Felicity’s side, pressing down on the wound on her chest. He checks her over for any other wounds and finds a couple grazes that are deep, but not life threatening. The only good thing he can say about the wound in her chest is that it’s a through and through. That and it’s not gushing so it doesn’t appear to be an arterial bleed.

“ _Almost there_ ,” Digg huffs. “ _Did I just hear gunshots?_ ”

A few deep breaths later, Oliver’s finally able to talk in a deathly calm voice. “Felicity’s been shot. We need to get her back to the Foundry.”

There’s nothing peaceful about the calm that envelops Oliver as he and Digg move Felicity to the van and set off for the foundry, nor when they stitch her up and almost have to shock her back to life. No. There’s nothing peaceful. Instead, it’s a diligent sort of calm, the kind that comes when you know bringing emotion into a situation will only make it worse, when something needs to get done and overthinking it will break you down.

As they work, Oliver’s mind whirls. If this woman dies because he brought her in too early, he’ll never forgive himself. She is his breaking point, which he’s known for far too long, but only now knows it well enough to admit it.

He only came back to himself, became a better man because of her. Without Felicity Smoak, there is no Oliver Queen. He can’t lose her.

He just can’t.


	2. The Reveal with Outtakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Companion to Chapter 22 of Once More

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are only a couple added parts, but I hope you enjoy some of the reactions. These are all things that were taken out during the editing process so it might be a little rough or contrasting to the final product. 
> 
> But I hope you enjoy it!

**Outtakes of Once More (From the Top) Chapter 22**

 

“So what did you bring us here to tell us?” Digg finally interrupts the stare down, his eyes darting between Lyla and Oliver with a furrowed brow.

Oliver shrugs. “Everything.”

“Everything?”

He nods in response, face grim. “Let’s start at the beginning...”

...

“Really? You spilled coffee on it?” Diggle asks, glancing skeptically at Felicity. She isn’t as surprised by the news, which means she must have heard it before. He shakes his head. No one in their right mind would ever confuse bullet holes for a spilled coffee.

“She didn’t buy it either.”

The enamored smile on Oliver’s face as he glances at the blonde tech genius has Diggle rolling his eyes. Well, it certainly didn’t take them long to get cozy.

“So that’s how she found out,” Lyla deadpans, clearly willing to move past this point and get on with the story. John gets it: she’s here for the plain and simple facts. All this emotional stuff is nice, but not particularly important to her.

Surprisingly, Oliver shakes his head. “No. She didn’t buy it, but she looked into the laptop anyway.”

“Really?” Digg snorts. In his limited experience, Felicity doesn’t seem to be the type to just let a paltry excuse like that slide.

“You should have heard some of the other excuses,” Oliver says with a wry grin. “You were there for a couple of them.”

John raises an eyebrow, unimpressed thus far. A man living his life in secrets should be able to lie.

Oliver chuckles. “The most memorable was the energy drink in a syringe.”

He snorts at the paltry excuse.

“I said I ran out of sports bottles, and that was when you walked away from me.”

Damn straight, Digg thinks. There was no way Felicity didn’t see straight through that. There was only so much that could be explained away as the eccentricities of the idle rich.

“She found out shortly after that.”

“Please! Could you be any more obvious?” Felicity demands. “The only reason I would do anything with that ridiculous is because your name was on the side of the building.”

Oliver nods along with John. “You made it clear that you didn’t believe a word out of my mouth.”

“So basically you only got as far as you did because of dumb luck.” Lyla crosses her arms over her chest in distrust of the whole operation.

“In the beginning,” Oliver agrees. “Why do you think I brought these two in earlier?”

No one has a response to that, and Oliver continues.

... 

“Wait. You were shot by Deadshot, and you didn’t think you needed to tell me?” Lyla demands of John.

He turns from Oliver with a sigh. “I wasn’t shot, Lyla. Oliver’s saying that happened in his...” John searches for the word. He doesn’t want to say Oliver’s past because it’s not really the past, but it’s not the future.

“Alternate reality,” Felicity answers confidently. Her sci-fi shows are finally paying off in real-life application.

Everyone turns to look at her, various frowns on their faces.

She shrugs. “Well, if he already lived this year, but it was different. Each choice changed it more. So either each choice branched out into another reality or his future is gone and all that exists is this one. Which could be really terrible if you were trying to return, because then who knows where you would end up. But you don’t seem to be trying to do that because you want to change things.”

She’s already miles ahead of anyone else. Felicity might as well be talking to herself for all the confused glances, but she’s now caught on another point:

“Why aren’t you trying to get back?”

Oliver swallows visibly and his eyes suddenly become very interested in everything other than her, which is of course the biggest giveaway.

“Oliver.” When he doesn’t respond, Felicity continues, “based on what little I know about your future, it seems to me like you would be trying to get back...unless something terrible happened there that you’re trying to fix.”

He lets out the breath he was holding slowly, like a hiss of air from a deflating balloon. Large, sad eyes that Felicity can only describe as puppy-dog meet hers, the blue almost liquid in sadness. “I lived with my mistakes. Sure, there are countless things I want to change. But the last thing I remember was falling off a cliff after a sword was yanked out of my chest. My future doesn’t hold anything for me.”

Felicity notices his hand run over his chest as he says the words, as he remembers just where the blade must have pierced him. Sure, she knew the future wouldn’t be perfect, but there wasn’t a single scenario in her mind where the man before her was dead. He seems to invincible right now, but maybe that’s just because he knows so much.

“So what about the rest of us, future-us, I mean?” Felicity asks before she can think better of it. “If you’re dead, does that mean the rest of us...”

Oliver shakes his head before she can even finish the question. “All of you are alive, but that part...it’s not important. We can avoid that. We can avoid a lot of things, but first you need to let me tell you what I remember. Can you do that?”

She doesn’t want to let it go, doesn’t want to drop all the questions swirling around her head like children on a merry-go-round, but the look of determination on Oliver’s face silences her.

Felicity can wait for her answers.

...

Lyla snorts. “The SCPD arrested you for vigilantism, and you got off? And it didn’t send Waller over to offer you a deal?”

She knows the problem. Waller likes plucking talented soldiers from jail or other trouble to do her bidding. Lyla herself was recruited after her divorce. Waller offered her a chance to make a difference, to do some good in the world. She isn’t stupid. She knows Waller lives in a chronic grey area when it comes to her operation, but what they do is what needs to be done to protect the innocents.

Lyla truly believes that.

She’s here because she hopes there’s another way to do things, even if it’s just on the small scale for now.

“Waller and I have a deal,” he responds with a shrug.

“Waller doesn’t make deals.” She offers ultimatums. She doesn’t give her recruits the chance to say no.

“She did with me.”

She narrows her eyes at the man in front of her, wondering what made him so different from every other soldier Waller has ever culled. He might be a time traveler now, but he used to be someone Waller respected enough to release back into the world.

“Who’s Waller?” Felicity asks, apparently the only one out of the loop on this one.

“Head of A.R.G.U.S., a military organization dedicated to protected United States assets, or so they claim.” Oliver glances at Lyla. “They’re covert and not afraid to get their hands dirty.”

Felicity follows his gaze and frowns slightly at her. “And you work for him?”

“Her,” Lyla corrects. “And yes. A.R.G.U.S. is shady, but they’ve saved a lot of lives.”

“Sure.” She raises her eyebrows at the sketchy defense. “But is the cost worth it?”

Felicity’s question gives Lyla pause. It’s a question she’s asked herself and then dismissed on countless occasions when faced with proof of her good work. As far as she could tell, everyone at A.R.G.U.S. knew Waller’s tactics were routinely questionable, and often despicable, but there were agents that did the dirtiest jobs that Lyla knew nothing about.

She, herself, operated mostly in the light.

But a woman she barely knows, who doesn’t know her asking that question...it hits close to home. And makes her seriously contemplate her answer.

...

“Wait. Why were you helping the woman who shot at your mother? That’s what I don’t get. I mean, sure murdering mobsters isn’t the worst thing she could do, but she almost shot your mother. That’s not the kind of thing you forgive. My mom and I barely get along and I’d still, you know, go after someone who tried to hurt her. Of course not in your grrr way, but in my computer, master-of-the-universe way.

“Unless, of course you were doing something ridiculous like sleeping with her.”

Oliver shifts nervously at the end of the rant and Felicity’s mouth falls open in shock.

“Oh my god! You totally were sleeping with her!”

Digg shakes his head. “Dude.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen this time around,” Oliver insists, eyes lifted heavenward as if praying for guidance.

“You sure?” Lyla asks pragmatically. “Oliver Queen does have a reputation.”

He glares at her this time as he growls, “Not anymore.”

“But won’t that change the timeline?” Felicity asks suddenly. “Like maybe she’ll now be successful in starting a mob war that devastates half the city.”

Oliver runs his hands over his face. “I’m not sleeping with Helena.”

“Why not? It’s not what you came back hoping to change, is it?” Lyla watches him carefully for his reaction.

“It’s not going to happen,” Oliver repeats with a heated glare at Lyla before his eyes dart over to Felicity.

The way his gaze softens as he looks at her takes her breath away and for a moment, Felicity forgets where she is. She’s lost in that look, a look that promises her the universe. His feelings are there, out on his sleeve.

A moment later she remembers that it’s not her he’s looking at. He’s looking at the other-her, the parallel universe her that he’s probably in love with. It’s getting harder and harder to convince herself of that when he keeps looking at her like that, especially after what he said last night about how she’s still the same Felicity he knew.

When he was joking with her and teasing it’s easier to pretend it’s just flirting and that he isn’t remembering a whole other her. She likes their relationship right now. It’s easy and fun, as simple as breathing.

There’s definitely no part of her that wants something more.

Maybe if she keeps telling herself that it will seem less false.

...

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait...Dark Archer? There’s a copycat?”

Oliver looks to the sky in silent prayer. He wants to get this story over with, but he wants to do it properly without revealing everything all at once.

“He wasn’t a copycat,” Oliver explains with a groan. “He was killing people from the list that I rendered useless and using it to send a message to the Hood. He wanted to draw me out into the open.”

He waits for the expected outburst, but none comes, so he continues:

“We fought.” It’s harder to get the words out as he can’t help but compare that fight to the one he had with Ra’s that ended up with him back here. Of course, Malcolm only barely failed to kill him while Ra’s succeeded. “I barely survived. John saved my life and I was...unable to fight for a while.”

No one looks happy about that announcement. Felicity chews on a bright blue nail and Digg and Lyla stare at him.

“What happened with him?” Felicity asks first.

“He got away,” Oliver answers simply. “Until we found him again later.”

“He left you alive?” Digg clarifies.

“That wasn’t intentional, but he defeated me for a time.” He’s not proud of it. That fight decimated his will to fight for the people of Starling until that firefighter attacked the gala at Verdant.

“Physically or mentally?”

Oliver’s not surprised that Digg’s the one to ask the question. His partner was the one who forced him to get over his fears long after his injuries had healed.

“Both, but I had a friend talk me back into it.” Digg nods in acknowledgement of Oliver’s nod to future him and Oliver takes a deep breath before he moves on as efficiently as he can.

“While I was fighting the Dark Archer, something else was happening...”

...

 “Mr. Steele was kidnapped!” Felicity interrupts with a squeak.

Oliver patiently turns to her with a sigh. This is taking a lot longer than he hoped, but he probably should have expected that given he was recapping three years’ worth of events. “That’s why you got involved: you wanted to save Walter.”

“Why does he get kidnapped?”

He feels like he’s been over this a thousand times because it’s ancient history to him. He needs to remember that everything could change this time around. “He found a book.” Oliver pulls out his copy. “It’s a list of the people involved in the Undertaking. The one he finds belongs to my mother.”

Felicity points at the book hesitantly. “Can I?”

Oliver hands it over, watching as she flips through it. The pages are stiff and worn as she turns them.

“And this is the list you were originally working off of?”

He nods.

“Don’t you think someone would put the puzzle pieces together?”

A chuckle escapes him, earning him a couple surprised looks. “Someone does.”

Felicity’s mouth falls open in a silent “oh,” a blush coloring her cheeks. “So...”

“Walter gives you the notebook to look into. I don’t know how you discover the names, but when he went missing, you brought the notebook to me. Oliver, not the Arrow.”

“Then how did I find out-“

“I’m getting to that.”

...

“Ted?” Digg asks, voice hard. “I don’t believe it. There has to be another explanation.”

And he really doesn’t. The man was his commanding officer, a hero, an upstanding man who would never mastermind a group that robbed armored trucks. He’d stake his life on that.

Oliver just looks at him sadly. “That’s what you said last time.”

“And you went after him anyway?” He doesn’t actually need a confirmation this time. The look on Oliver’s face is plain enough. “So what? Did you deem him guilty?”

“John...he forced you to work for him by threatening Carly. I helped you get out of it.”

That gives him pause. He doesn’t want to believe he could be so deceived by his mentor, but Carly hasn’t really come up before. And he wonders what it means that Oliver’s bringing her up. Not that anyone would have any success holding Lyla as collateral.

“Carly?” Lyla asks suddenly, a sideways glance at him, and John grimaces. “Your sister-in-law?”

Oliver nods, but doesn’t say anything more.

John doesn’t like the knowing glint in his eyes though. He’s going to have to remember to ask Oliver about Carly later, when Lyla isn’t within earshot.

...

“You really did have some lame excuses. Are you supposed to be a good liar?” Lyla asks sarcastically, rolling her eyes. When she gets a surprised look from the others, she just shrugs. “Vertigo in a syringe? He was testing you, right?”

Oliver’s lips twitch in a grin, Lyla accepts as confirmation of her idea.

“Did I pass?”

Lyla resists the urge to roll her eyes at the blonde. She’s dealt with computer techs. She knows that sometimes their minds sometimes aren’t entirely in the room with them.

“I mean, of course, I pass. You brought me in eventually, right? Silly question. But why test me in the first place? I’m sure cute, blonde IT girl wasn’t really on your list of must haves as you start a vigilante crusade.”

Lyla turns back to Oliver for his response.

“I needed computer help. Walter recommended you. After our first meeting, I dug a little deeper. You’re smart, too-smart for the IT department, and you had a kind heart. You’d be willing to help.”

Those were his initial reasons, Lyla has no doubt, but he’s kept her around for other reasons. This time traveler would only bring her in earlier if she was integral to his operation, or more likely to him personally.

“And I helped you kill people? Because honestly, so far in the story, I’m not seeing why alternate-me would help. No offense but you seem pretty trigger happy, alternate-you or you-back-then, I mean.”

The blonde does have a point.

“You only signed on until we could save Walter,” Oliver admits, “and once you sign on, our M.O. shifts. We start going after people that aren’t on the list but were trying to harm our city.”

“Not that I don’t enjoy you walking down memory lane,” Lyla interrupts, disturbing the heart eyes Oliver’s throwing in Felicity’s direction, “but how about you finish the story and we go from there?”

She ignores the cold eyes on her in response to her heartless interruption, but she’s here to listen to a possible future, not re-live Oliver’s past.

Oliver nods in acknowledgement and continues.

...

“YOUR MOTHER SHOT YOU?!”

Oliver nods solemnly, accepting of this interruption, because, while Felicity is the most vocal, Lyla and Diggle also have looks of shock and disbelief written on their faces.

“AND THAT’S HOW I FOUND OUT? YOU SHOWED UP SHOT IN MY CAR?!”

He can’t resist adding: “And you took it a lot better that time.”

Felicity glares at him, crossing her arms over her chest. “Oh, sure. I bet I just smiled and took you to wherever you wanted to go. It was here, wasn’t it?”

There’s not any point in denying that. “All you said was: ‘everything about you just became incredibly clear.’”

“I find it hard to believe that’s all I said.”

Oliver winces at the memory of passing out in Felicity’s backseat. “You started babbling about something, but I passed out from blood loss.”

Felicity purses her lips, finding that idea not very comforting. Oliver just shrugs. It’s his past. And it’s something he’s already changed. He doesn’t have to go to his mother demanding answers this time around.

...

“Am I the only one who has a problem with a bomb around the neck of the only non-militant in our group?” John asks. “She shouldn’t have been in the field.”

“Excuse me?” Felicity demands, turning on him. “Without my help, he wouldn’t have caught the guy.”

“But that put your life in danger. Your head could have been blown up.” She must not have been clear on that fact, John thinks, because otherwise she would be freaking out.

“But it wasn’t because we worked together as a team. And I probably designed that tracker myself. It made sense for me to be on site. Although, maybe it could’ve have gone better. And maybe I could use some self-defense training.” Felicity purses her lips in contemplation of the idea.

“Starting immediately,” John agrees with a glance at Oliver. “I get the feeling you’re going to need it.”

Oliver nods in agreement. At least they’re all on the same page.

...

“Wait, Deadshot shoots Malcolm Merlyn and he survives?” Lyla asks slowly. Curare is a hard poison to get an antidote for, especially with how much Lawton coats his bullets in.  An ingested poison will take longer, but Lawton introduces it straight into the bloodstream. Not to mention, he never misses a target.

“Malcolm wore a bulletproof vest,” Oliver explains. “And I set up a blood transfusion with him and Tommy...that’s how Tommy found out I was the Arrow.”

It’s a decision he regrets. That much is plain from his grimace. Lyla can’t disagree with him there. She knows the toll secrets take on any kind of relationship.

“But Tommy knows now, so you don’t have to worry about that, at least,” Felicity says cheerfully.

Lyla watches Oliver though and he doesn’t seem quite as sure as she does. There’s something else he’s holding back and she can’t help but wonder what it is.

But he doesn’t address it, just continues with his story. Yet it suddenly clicks with her what he’s doing: Oliver’s telling the story so they can go over everything like it’s the first time. For him, at least some of the holes have been filled in, but he’s leaving them open so the big surprises are just as big for them.

There’s some big reveal about this “Undertaking” that Oliver wants to keep secret. It’s like he’s testing them, to see if they can solve what they weren’t able to figure out the first time he lived it.

...

“I left,” Oliver whispers. “Lyla was there with A.R.G.U.S. to capture Lawton, but you and I were going to kill him before Waller could get her hands on him.” Oliver’s focus is completely on John, watching for his reaction. “I left to protect Laurel, Tommy, and the kid from an assassin and you went after Deadshot on your own.”

Lyla stiffens from her spot and Oliver’s gaze darts to her.

“Lawton was aiming for you and John pushed you out of the way, almost got shot too, chasing after Lawton.” This is the part of the story that it’s hardest to tell right now. He’s still afraid of John deciding to walk away right now. There’s no way he can see him and Felicity continuing this fight with the same success without John Diggle.

“You quit after that...for a while.”

“How long?” is John’s only question.

Oliver laughs. “Until Felicity made me apologize.”

...

“In this hypothetical future, do you let the small blonde girl walk into all the dangerous situations?”

Oliver sighs in Lyla’s direction as John nods in agreement.

Felicity snorts. “I grew up in Vegas. I know how to handle myself in a casino, even an underground one. The only way they would have caught me counting cards was if I let them.”

John and Lyla turn to stare at her as Oliver smirks. “Did I mention she can count cards?”

“And how did you find that out?” She demands of Oliver, unimpressed.

“You told me when you informed me you would be walking into the casino because we had no other choice.”

“Of course she did,” Digg groans. “I’m starting to think she’s the stubborn one.”

“Hey!”

Diggle raises an eyebrow to silently question her objection.

She frowns as she grumpily backs down. “It was the right decision. We do save Walter, right?”

Oliver nods and braces himself for one last secret.

...

“Malcolm Merlyn!”

Felicity feels like the ground under her is pulling her in. She has to sit down, except she’s already sitting so she can’t really do anything.

“Yeah. He plans to set off two earthquake machines in order to level the Glades, machines developed by Unidac Industries.”

Felicity’s head jerks up. “Unidac Industries, like the recently added to Queen Consolidated Unidac Industries?”

Oliver’s nod has Felicity’s mind spinning in a thousand directions.

“As in the company under my department’s guidance? The one working on top secret projects where the orders come from higher up than me? They’re not working on anything earthquake-related.”

“It’s called the Markov Device,” he supplies.

She mentally flips through all the files that have crossed her desk since her promotion, thankful for her stellar memory recall. There are lots of projects that fall under her purview and it’s hard to remember everything, but then:

“That’s not a machine designed for creating earthquakes. It’s a smaller device...there was something about medical or military uses.” Felicity can’t quite remember but it started with an m.

“Well, Malcolm weaponized it and put two in the Glades.”

“And we stopped him, right?” Because this Foundry is in the Glades. And Felicity refuses to believe that Oliver would be standing here if the Undertaking actually happened. She hates to think about it, but Oliver would die before he let anything happen to the people of Starling City.

“Digg and I confronted him, and Lance was able to disarm one with your help.” Oliver runs a hand through his hair. “But we only thought there was one.”

A horrified gasp leaves her at the implications of his statement.

“503 people died in the earthquake.”

“Oh God,” Felicity whispers, suddenly nauseous.

“And Malcolm?” Digg asks.

It earns another grimace from Oliver. “At the time we thought he was dead. I stabbed him through the heart with an arrow. But it turns out it didn’t stick.”

“What’s our timeline?”

Felicity nods in agreement with Digg’s question. They need to know how quickly this is going to happen so they can plan to stop it. Because obviously that’s what they’re going to do: stop it.

“About six months.”

“Six months?” Felicity gasps. She thought they were talking years here. “This all happened within a year of you coming home? What about the other two years in the future?”

Oliver shrugs and she can’t say she finds it comforting.

“Well, I left for a while, which won’t be happening again,” Oliver assures them, which tells Felicity that something happened while he was away that he’s not willing to risk happening again. “And the next year turned out to be orchestrated by Slade Wilson, a...former friend from Lian Yu.”

“Whoa! Hold up. There were other people on the Island with you?” Felicity demands.

“Yes,” Oliver answers simply. “And I didn’t spend all five years on that Island, but that’s not the point. The point is, so much as changed already and there’s so much more we need to change...we should worry about this first. The Undertaking: it needs to be stopped.”

...

If Oliver thinks she’s going to let him end their conversation like that he’s got another thing coming, but she recognizes the importance of this, the importance of focusing on one goal at a time and the first thing is the Undertaking.

Felicity straightens, rising to stand as she faces Oliver.

“So how do we stop Malcolm Merlyn?”

 


	3. The Missing Dinner and Big Belly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missing scene from after Chapter 23 where Moira, Oliver, and Felicity go to Big Belly Burger (by request)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @OracleGoddessOfDelphi asked if I could do this scene, and I couldn't resist! Hope you like it! 
> 
> And this has been edited by the lovely Geniewithwifi!

**Chapter 23 Dinner Scene**

Dinner is...awkward, to say the least.

It isn’t _bad_ , per se, but Felicity feels like someone ran a translation algorithm on her computer without her knowledge: logically she knows what’s happening, but she doesn’t understand the specifics of how this came to be. There was a burger in front of her, exactly as she liked it and a milkshake. Even the mighty Moira Queen was eating a burger _with her hands_. There was a close call when she picked up a fork and knife – Felicity didn’t even know Big Belly _had_ forks and knives. – but Oliver had stopped her.

Yeah, Felicity’s wayyy out of her depth here.

“So, Felicity, why don’t you tell me a little about yourself? Walter mentioned you were Director of Applied Sciences.” Moira’s question lacks the disdain she almost expected. She actually sounds interested in her answer, leaning forward to hear the answer better.

Felicity handles it far less gracefully, choking on her milkshake. It takes her a couple moments and Oliver’s borrowed water before she can get words out again.

“Oh, um, yeah, okay.” Now if only she could remember some interesting facts about herself. It’s kind of funny how everything you know leaves your head the moment you actually need it. It’s like the naked-in-front-of-class nightmare she had all through seventh grade: embarrassing and horrifying.

Moira raises an eyebrow and Oliver snorts.

“You could start with where you went to school,” he offers with a chuckle.

Felicity groans and drops her head into her hands. “God, I said all of that out loud, didn’t I?”

“Quite alright, dear,” Moira offers with a quirk of her lips that reminds her instantly of Oliver’s little smirk.

“Um.” Felicity glances at Oliver, whose encouraging look isn’t very motivational at the moment. It’s Digg’s sympathetic gaze that bolsters her enough to get over the road block in her brain. “Right. MIT. Class of ’09.” She winces at the jerky announcement. She’s way out of her depth with the socially-trained Queens. “I graduated with a Masters in Computer Sciences and Cyber Security.”

Moira blinks. “Really? That’s impressive. You can’t be more than 25 now. The youngest director QC has ever had.”

“22,” she corrects, not to brag. It’s just a gut reaction to her veiled question; one that she realizes plays right into Moira’s hands. “I graduated MIT at 19.”

“With a Masters. And they put you into IT.” Moira frowns at the information and Felicity can’t blame her. She chose Starling and QC for a reason, but that doesn’t mean she was happy about the position.

“Yup. Under an incompetent supervisor who could barely do his job. I swear most of my time was spent cleaning porn viruses off computers and being oogled by the creeps.” Now that she’s started talking she can’t seem to stop. “Not that your employees are _all_ creeps, but as a rule I’ve learned that men at work watching porn are creeps. Who watches porn at work, anyway? I know the answer to that question far better than I ever wanted to after IT. Just because I’m erasing viruses from your computer, doesn’t mean I’m interested in bringing to life your fantasy. There were a couple that must have started to hurt their computers on purpose just so I would have to crawl under their desks.” She shivers. “Gave me the creeps.”

“And you filed harassment charges with HR?” Moira asks.

Felicity snorts. “No. Please, what would a complaint from a lowly IT grunt have done? I just tanked their credit scores. One time I put one guy on the no-fly list. Changed their notifications to porcupine farts, stuff like that.” She munches on a fry absent-mindedly. “They got the message.”

There’s a prolonged moment where silence reigns. Oliver looks torn between amused and murderous, which Felicity can only assume is for her sake. After a beat, Moira’s smile returns with a decisive nod.

“I’ve been telling Walter we need more women in higher positions at QC, women who can hold their own.”

Maybe Moira started speaking a different language that just sounded like English because could have just sworn she got the woman’s nod of approval, which couldn’t be possible. Could it? It wasn’t a straightforward compliment, but still. She’s somehow in Moira Queen’s good graces.

She’s not sure if that’s good or bad just yet.

“You know, it’s been forever since I had a cheeseburger,” Moira mutters after a long bite.  “I’d forgotten they tasted so good.”

Oliver chuckles. “Cheeseburgers are definitely something I missed.”

Moira pauses at his reference to the island, but Felicity laughs.

“And French fries?” She inquires cheekily as she snatches one of his.

He grins at her and shrugs. “I didn’t have access to many potatoes.”

Moira’s eyes dart between them in surprise.

“Lots of fish though. You need to cook something over a campfire, I’m your guy.”

Felicity forces herself to continue the light conversation even though she can feel Moira’s assessing gaze. She scrunches her face. “I was never a fan of fish. I had a roommate once who ate tuna and anchovies _all_ the time.” She shudders. “Worst roommate ever. And I’m not just saying that because that one time her boyfriend fried dinner in peanut oil and sent me to the hospital. She used to leave her stuff everywhere. And I know I’m not the neatest person, but your underwear should not be in the main living area. It’s common courtesy.”

“I think the peanut thing is worse,” Oliver comments, his eyes hard in a way that says something like that would never happen while he was around.

Felicity shrugs. In truth, it was a lot of stuff that just piled up. The peanut oil thing was just the final straw in an already destroyed friendship. She had been moving out in two days anyway. She just spent them in the hospital and never talked to her ever again.

They lull into silence and Felicity’s surprised to find that it’s not uncomfortable. Moira eventually starts up a dialogue about Oliver as a child and how he would ask for tater tots with every meal, how he would freeze snowballs so he could use them all year round, how he would come home covered in mud and track it all through Queen Mansion like a trail around the polished house.

The conversation is cute, adorable in all the ways a mother talking about her son is. Felicity, however is a confusing mess of feelings.

She could see herself here as Oliver’s girlfriend, after that awkward part where Moira’s finished judging her and decided they got along. But they’re not there yet. They’re nowhere close.  Sure, she sees the possibility. It’s there in every touch, every moment that they spend alone. It’s creeping up on her now and all she wants to do is run.

He’s too invested and it’s lowkey freaking her out. If it was happening to them at the same time, it might be different, but knowing his feelings are so much stronger than hers, that he’s had years to grow into them. He’d told her there was something between them, and she can see it in his eyes every time they were together. It’s scary.

No one has ever looked at her that way before.

And who knows if anyone will ever look at her that way again.

Felicity makes a mental note to pick up mint chip ice cream on the way home. If there was ever a time for her favorite comfort food, this was it. The Queens are giving her emotional shock right now.

She needs to figure out how she feels about all of this.

“What? No fake ID?” Oliver grins and Felicity can’t help but laugh.

“Believe it or not, no. And I was the good influence with that. My mom got me my first fake at 15 as a graduation present, and then kept checking in to see if I used it.” She rolls her eyes good-naturedly at her mother’s over-zealousness. That was probably one of her simpler machinations.

“Your mother?” Moira asks primly.

Felicity can practically see the wheels turning in the monarch’s head as she pieces together the fragmented story she’s gotten. “Donna Smoak is nothing if not exuberant and bright. She wanted me to go out there. I purposefully held off dating until college so she wouldn’t jump around our apartment squealing. She would have loved for me to have a huge social life. Instead, she got the reclusive nerd who took apart every machine in our apartment and dressed in all black.”

“Really?” Oliver asks, blinking in shock.

They must not be that close if he doesn’t know about her goth phase. Yet, he knew about Cooper and the supervirus, so that’s kind of surprising. Felicity just grinned. “Yup.” She pops the ‘p’ with a huge smile, enjoying his shock a little too much. “All black, huge eyeliner, a couple piercings, maybe a tattoo or two.”

Well, at least she knows now he hasn’t seen her tattoos. Otherwise Oliver probably wouldn’t look quite so shocked.

“I thought you were terrified of needles.”

Felicity shudders. “Yeah, I _hate_ needles. Egh. But it was my rebellious phase. My family’s never been particularly religious, but my mom’s stance on tattoos still landed securely on never-gonna-happen, so I had to get at least one, and I may have had copious amounts of alcohol before both. But, I never peed on a cop car.”

She rounds on Oliver, happy for the chance to turn the tables.

He grimaces. “I didn’t make the best choices. So...two tattoos?”

“Nuh-uh, Mister. We’re not talking about that.”

His charming smile probably would have made her weak in the knees if she was standing, but she’s not about to change her mind about the tattoos. He’ll have to work for that.

He leans back with a confident smirk. “I’ll find out eventually.”

“But that’s not tonight,” she announced, stealing another French fry. She can’t pull her eyes from his blue ones, a flirty smile gracing her lips. Flirting hasn’t felt this right or natural in years. Sure, she and Tommy banter all the time, but this is completely different. This is sexually charged and Felicity has no doubt it could go somewhere eventually.

A peal of laughter from across the restaurant breaks the moment and Felicity quickly looks away, catching Digg’s amused glance before he turns to survey the room again. Felicity brushes her hair behind her ear and casts around for a change of subject.

“I guess my mom’s only stories would involve the time I took the toaster apart and put it back together wrong. It would only burn the toast after that. It kept setting off the fire alarm. We had to throw it out a week later.” She tilts her head. “Yeah, that was the worst because neither my mother nor I could cook. Which was why I wasn’t allowed to play with the microwave. We would have starved. I can’t even boil water without burning something.”

Moira raised an eyebrow. “Surely that’s an exaggeration.”

“Oh, I wish it was.” She purses her lips as she remembers a series of cook debacles back in college when she decided she should try to cook again. “I can’t even feed myself now. I always order take out or eat raw food or frozen food. I’ve mastered the frozen pizza. I barely burn it anymore.”

And why did she settle on this as a good subject? Why didn’t she talk about what she was good at? Great at, even. She was a certified genius. So she couldn’t cook. What did that matter in the grand scheme of things? She would just have to find someone who could and marry them. Preferably a hot someone, but the cooking thing might be more important.

“Oliver’s a good cook,” Moira offers with a smirk. “You should let him cook for you.”

Felicity’s inner dialogue cuts off quickly, hoping everything in her head stayed there. She doesn’t need her brain-to-mouth filter to fail her anymore tonight.

“It’ll be the first time a girl’s after his cooking skills and not his money,” Moira offers with a twinkle in her eye.

“Or not so internal a dialogue,” Felicity groans, wishing she could phase through the table and disappear like a ghost.  

“Mom,” Oliver warns.

Moira shrugs. “Just an observation, dear.” She waves it off like she didn’t just try to set Felicity up with her son and launches into a story about a date she went on with Walter where he tried to cook fajitas and she had to come to his rescue.

But Felicity’s hyperaware of everything after that. She doesn’t know what to make of Moira and Oliver, and she really wishes her milkshake was something a little smaller.

Also, she really needs to talk to Tommy. His insights at this unforeseen occurrence would be invaluable.

 


	4. Roy in the Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cut scene from Chapter 24. Roy's awake and they're deciding where he should stay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The ending here is a bit abrupt, but that's only because I couldn't figure out how to get the scene to go where I wanted so I stopped it halfway through and got rid of the scene. I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> **all mistakes are mine

“I’m not going to live in some palace!” Roy protests, loudly from his hospital bed.

Felicity stifles a laugh and glances over at Oliver to find his unamused reaction which only makes her want to laugh more. She knows Oliver wants Roy close for his own protection, but really Roy’s estimation of Queen Mansion seems like a pretty accurate statement to her.

Oliver sighs. “Roy, it’s the best option. You were seriously injured. You need someone to keep an eye on you as you heal. And somewhere out of the Glades. It’s the only option.”

“He could stay with me,” Felicity offers, smiling politely at Oliver when he shoots her a look. But she doesn’t take it back. The kid seems surly, but she likes him. “I’ve got an extra room. That probably need some tidying up...and a new set of sheets. Maybe a pillow...but Roy’s welcome to stay there.”

 “Yeah, I don’t know Blondie, and no offense, but I’ll take my chance in the Glades. I don’t need your charity,” he claims, scooting to the edge of the bed.

“It’s not charity,” Oliver growls. “It’s necessity. You’re putting yourself in danger going back before you’re ready.”

“And firstly, my name’s not Blondie,” Felicity butts in. Oliver’s not handling this well and Roy doesn’t seem like the kind of person to appreciate wealth being shoved in his face. “Secondly,” she walks over and not-so-gently pushes Roy back on the hospital bed, “it’s not _charity_. You’re going to contribute to the upkeep of my apartment. Thirdly, seeing as people are trying to kill you, apparently, you don’t really have a choice. It’s my place or the castle. Pick one.”

She hadn’t expected all those words to come out of her mouth, but she can’t disagree with a single word that came out of her mouth for once. She summons her best motherly glare  for the stare down.

“Are you serious right now?”

“You’ve got two choices, Harper,” she says, crossing her arms over her chest. She’s channeling Rhoda, the manager of the bar at the casino her mother worked out her whole childhood. Her mother was never strict really. No, her mother preferred to encourage her in other adventures: like getting a fake ID to sneak into clubs and casinos, and picking up hot guys in clubs. “Pick wisely.”

Roy huffs and turns to Oliver. “So, who is she?”

“ _She_ is right here.” Felicity steps up to the bed and holds out her hand. “My name is Felicity. Smoak. Felicity Smoak, MIT class of ’09.”

“Felicity works with me,” Oliver fills in.

“And I can take care of myself,” Roy protests.

“With a possible gang war coming, I don’t think so,” Felicity points out.

“Gang war?”

“Not if we can help it.” Oliver glares at Felicity spilling the beans.

She just shrugs and holds up her phone. “Then we have to do something about Helena, and fast.”

Oliver won’t admit it, but he’s been stalling when it comes to Helena. She’s also about 96% sure he just doesn’t want to deal with the way it happened last time. Well, now that Roy’s awake, she’s not going to accept any more excuses. She’s been planning different options the while time they’ve been here.

“Who’s Helena?”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Deleted scenes for the big reveal (that I know many of you are waiting for) will be posted in about a week...I'm working on a bunch of stuff so I'm trying to space stuff out a little bit.


End file.
